


something like spring

by blazeofglory



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Friendship, Future Fic, Let Jack Zimmermann Be Happy 2k16, M/M, Past Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 15:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8851183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blazeofglory/pseuds/blazeofglory
Summary: Jack just really, really wants his friends to like his new boyfriend.





	

Kent Parson is a bit of an enigma—or at least Jack’s pretty sure that’s what his friends think. The first time most of them meet him in the context of _Jack’s Boyfriend_ , he can tell that they don’t really know what to think. Ransom and Holster are starstruck and hiding it very, very poorly; ironically, they’re acting the same way they had when Kent had come to that kegster three years back, but Jack had credited their awe then to tub juice. He’s sure they think they’re being very subtle about the way they keep whispering to each other, undoubtedly about Kent’s stats and cups and every award he’s ever won. Jack mostly finds it amusing, and he can tell from the quirk of Kent’s lips when Ransom or Holster ask him something that he does too. 

The seven of them are crowded around the haus dining room table, digging into the four pies Bittle had made for the occasion. Jack is at the head of the table, with Kent and Ransom and Holster to his left. To his right are Lardo, Shitty, and Bittle. Jack really hadn’t had any worries about Ransom and Holster liking Kent, but the other three… Well. 

Lardo is as impossible to read as ever, so when the others are all engaged in a spirited conversation about some movie Jack’s never seen, he carefully meets her eye across the table. Their silent conversations have long been perfected, so he just raises a brow, and he knows she knows what he’s asking. Then, the moment of truth—she smiles, small and honest. Jack ducks his head to hide his answering smile. Kent has her seal of approval. 

Jack’s pretty sure he knows what Shitty and Bittle are thinking, and he’s relatively sure they aren’t pleasant thoughts. Shitty is being friendly as ever to Kent, joining the discussion like normal, but his words from a few weeks ago are still echoing in Jack’s head.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea for you,” Shitty had said, careful and measured over the phone one night. “Jack, I’ve seen you two together before…”

“You’ve only seen us fight,” Jack had pointed out, sighing in exasperation. The only two times Kent had ever come to Samwell before hadn’t exactly gone well, but Shitty shouldn’t be judging Kent on such brief overheard encounters. “We’re good now, I swear.” 

Shitty had paused for a moment. “I support you, you know that. I just… I don’t know. I’m not sure he’s healthy for you.”

“And Bitty was?” Jack had countered, because of course he knew exactly what Shitty was getting at there. His problem wasn’t really with Kent; his problem was that Jack had broken up with Bitty. Shitty had been very, _very_ vocal about his disagreements with that decision.

“Jack—”

“No,” Jack had interrupted, finally fed up. “Bitty is great, you know I think Bitty’s great. But that didn’t work out, okay? Neither of us were happy. Me and Kent, though—he makes me happy, okay?”

“Okay,” Shitty had conceded, then changed the subject. It wasn’t really support, but it was, at the very least, acceptance.

Now, Shitty is sitting close to Bitty, like some sort of protective wall between him and Jack. It makes Jack’s heart clench in his chest a little. They’d grown more distant since Shitty went to Harvard and Jack went to Providence, but they were still best friends, and… and this is the first time Shitty’s ever not been happy for Jack. Shitty’s been his support system through dark times, yet now, when Jack is _happy_ , Shitty can’t be happy for him.

Jack takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Kent, at his side, notices and shoots him a concerned look. Jack hesitates for a second, then reaches under the table for Kent’s hand. There aren’t a whole lot of people they can do this around, so he won’t deny himself the opportunity now. Kent holds tight, and his conversation with the boys doesn’t falter for a second.

Jack is so unspeakably grateful to have this man by his side. 

“So, wait, how long have you two been together?” Holster interrupts, blunt as ever.

Kent grins easily and turns to Jack. “Like, what, four months?” 

“Five,” Jack answers, smiling back at him. He focuses on Kenny, on the hair poking out from under his hat and his eyes that look so green in this light and the curve of his pink lips. He very carefully doesn’t look over at Bittle. Ransom says, “Swawesome.” and Holster asks, “Have you seen Thirty Rock?” and conversation continues on.

It’s only been seven months since he and Bittle broke up. Unless Shitty or Lardo had told him, there’s no way he knew that Jack had gotten with Kent so quickly after. Jack feels guilty about it, of course he does, but what’s the point? He and Bitty both knew, in the last few months of their relationship, that it wasn’t going to work out; it wasn’t going to last. They hadn’t had enough time together, Bitty was sick of hiding and Jack was sick of lying. Somehow, they’d stopped having things to talk about.

They’d broken up and Kent had invited Jack to stay in Vegas a few weeks later.

When Jack had kissed Kent for the first time in years, he hadn’t thought of Bitty for even a second.

Jack wonders, though, if Bittle still thinks of him—still misses him. He chances a look at Bittle, and… and he’s smiling. He’s leaning into Shitty’s side and looking right at Kent and _smiling_. Jack knows Bitty almost as well as he knows himself, or at least he used to, and he can tell that Bittle really is happy. He’s happy for Jack, he’s not angry or hurt or anything else Jack had worried about.

Jack’s heart warms a little. His friends are his family, and Bittle is a part of that, despite the fights and the breakup and the weeks of silence before they’d gone back to talking a few times a week. And if Bittle can be happy for him, so can Shitty, and Jack resolves to point that out to him another day.

For now, he just leans back in his chair, letting the words of his favorite people wash over him. He releases Kent’s hand, because he doesn’t need that support grounding him anymore when his head is this calm, but Kent just moves his hand to rest on Jack’s knee. It’s easy, thoughtless affection that Jack misses every second Kent’s in Vegas.

Maybe Jack will move to Vegas someday, he thinks—and the thought isn’t as terrifying as it used to be. But he looks around the table, at all the people he loves, and… Well, unless they all come with him, he’s not sure he could go.

**Author's Note:**

> Let's ignore how this is my way of procrastinating studying for my finals...


End file.
